Chinese New Year Pix

[Tronhard]

OK, these are from a previous celebration as the CNY has not officially started. Having thrown out my back I am hoping to make it to the event on Friday this week but in the meantime I felt it was worthwhile to showcase the really awesome light displays provided by Auckland's Chinese community. They are all on one big display and the trick is to get there on a day when the food stalls are not in action and the "selfie" takers are not getting in the way...

Auckland has a vibrant multi-cultural community with an increasing Asian population, so this festival gets a lot of attention - from all ethnicities.


"Catching the light"


"Market Garden"


"Dragonfly"


"Sewing the Paddy"


"Minding the ducks"

[John 2]

Spot on exposure for the tableaus and some very nice imagery. Just a little more detail in the shadows might be worth a try in the first two, not for detail so much as to tie them down to something. They're floating a bit at the moment.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Tronhard]

Spot on exposure for the tableaus and some very nice imagery. Just a little more detail in the shadows might be worth a try in the first two, not for detail so much as to tie them down to something. They're floating a bit at the moment.

Hi John:

After reviewing the originals I realized that actually I blacked out the shadows deliberately in the first two to get rid of distractions from other displays and from park lights - they really confused the eye and I wanted to use the images on my desktop so it was necessary to have a less cluttered area so I could seem my icons.

[IzzieK]

Every shot here is so beautiful. I am partial to Asian festivities (I wonder why??? ) and bugger if I know why we have to travel 3-4 hours here in Missouri to find something Asian like Chinese New Year celebration of the Tet's when we have a Chinese/Vietnamese area down University City...somewhere. We are not lucky enough here I suppose.

I like #1 for the fish catching. Fish is an auspicious item at the dinner table on CNY as it denotes prosperity. The paddy field is an excellent image too. Very typical of rice-producing countries. The last one is a cutie...

Did someone give you a red packet for CNY for luck? Or you have to give some? Another week of celebration and this will be gone. Time to enjoy family and friends.

[Geoff F]

Obviously difficult subjects but your exposure has been nicely constrained.

[Tronhard]

Hi Izzie:

My partner is a professor of Chinese culture at Auckland University. She has lived in China for some years in the 1980's and she speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese fluently. Actually she also speaks Russian, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese and of course English. She is English and looks it, which is very confusing to people who expect an ethnic Chinese person to be in her position. This is rather intimidating for someone who has only English, but I am a numbers person, so I can speak binary and Hexidecimal! We normally go to the Chinese New Year festivities but this year I don't know if she will be up for it. Still, her daughter, who is has very Asian features, is going to join me for a night so I hope to get some more photos with her.

[IzzieK]

You got a good one there, Trev, very special.

My grand daughter will be 3 years old at the end of this month, February 28th. She speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin and reads Grade 5 books already. Her mother speaks several languages too apart from Mandarin and Cantonese. She is Chinese/Malaysian and in their culture women speaks several languages, men content themselves to just tackle one.

[Tronhard]

You got a good one there, Trev, very special.

My grand daughter will be 3 years old at the end of this month, February 28th. She speaks both Cantonese and Mandarin and reads Grade 5 books already. Her mother speaks several languages too apart from Mandarin and Cantonese. She is Chinese/Malaysian and in their culture women speaks several languages, men content themselves to just tackle one.

Good heavens! I must be Malaysian without realizing it!

I truly envy those who can master multiple languages - sadly it's not my strength and I will never become a polyglot...

This photo is probably not what it appears - namely a man with a pizza delivery!

[Mike Buckley]

Interesting photos, Trev. I've never seen a display like these.

I truly envy those who can master multiple languages - sadly it's not my strength

Same for me. The only class I came close to failing in high school was French class.

A Russian customer told me the following joke (thankfully in English) years ago:

What do you call someone who speaks three or more languages? Multilingual
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American

[bnnrcn]

Interesting photos, Trev. I've never seen a display like these.



Same for me. The only class I came close to failing in high school was French class.

A Russian customer told me the following joke (thankfully in English) years ago:

What do you call someone who speaks three or more languages? Multilingual
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American

[bnnrcn]

+1 to Mike, very interesting images, thanks for sharing

[george013]

Interesting photos, Trev. I've never seen a display like these.



Same for me. The only class I came close to failing in high school was French class.

A Russian customer told me the following joke (thankfully in English) years ago:

What do you call someone who speaks three or more languages? Multilingual
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American

You may substitute American for French.


Trev,
In Amsterdam Cninese new year was celebrated on 8 februari. Until now I missed it always.

George

[Tronhard]

Someone rather unkindly said that the French recognize only one language, while Americans know of only one country.

Personally I have met quite a few from the US and have found them to be great hosts. I will concede that the American media and education systems seem to lack a certain global engagement however. As for the French, they have an incredibly beautiful language, but struggle to keep it as it was in the face of globalization and the interaction of cultures through the web and mass media.

[Tronhard]

In Amsterdam Cninese new year was celebrated on 8 februari. Until now I missed it always.

George

That would be right. The Chinese new year is lunar like Easter and moves with the new moon - and that occurred on Feb 8th this year for you but 9th for NZ. The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month, and traditionally ends the Chinese New Year period. In 2016 it falls on February 22.

[george013]

That would be right. The Chinese new year is lunar like Easter and moves with the new moon - and that occurred on Feb 8th this year for you but 9th for NZ. The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month, and traditionally ends the Chinese New Year period. In 2016 it falls on February 22.

Eastern is celebrated on the same day all over the world. Difference might be it's calculated from the Vatican position, and Chinese new year from the local position.
I never thought of it that way.

George

Edit.
One more thought. Chinese new year in Amsterdam is celebrated with a dragon dance and fire work. The photo's you show are from something as a Chinese light festival. That's a static, long term, central organized setup. I don't know the background of that.

George

[Tronhard]

Hi George:

This link may be of assistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Festival!

[george013]

Hi George:

This link may be of assistance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Festival!

I now understand it's the end of the new year celebration. Though Amsterdam has a Chinese community for a long time, it was never celebrated here. Though I remember of a Chinese lightfestival somewhere in the middle of Holland. Probably only one take-a-way Chinese living there.

Dates are still confusing me I understand your explanation. But looking at this site, I wonder for which part of the world it's meant. http://www.chinahighlights.com/festi...n-festival.htm.
I just looked at the homepage: Australie.

George

[Tronhard]

Hi George:

I hope this will be helfpul. The Chinese New Year is set based on the second new moon of our year. This year that started for NZ on February 9th, but you may have seen it as Feb 8th because of your location on the planet. The lantern festival is the finale of the celebrations and that end 14-15 days after the start of the Chinese New Year. So for us the festival starts today Feb 18th and ends around Feb 23rd.